Category Archives: Tom Mauk

He wasn’t lost in the woods after all as ex-Orange County CEO Thomas Mauk recently made the LA Times — and it wasn’t for a Model Citizen or Employee of the Year Award.

Mauk was pushed out of County employ in mid-2012 with a $270k severance package. Among a number of nasty personnel issues that he’d failed to deal with, it was former Public Works Manager and Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante’s sexual assaults of multiple female employees since the mid-’90s that finally forced the Supervisors to deal with look-the-other-way Mauk — clearly he was an incompetent senior manager who should have been let go long before he finally hit the door. Mauk was replaced with another County insider who’s got his own checkered reputation.

When Costa Mesa attorney Steve Young last ran for office, in 2012, he said that “Democrats can’t simply run against the culture of corruption in Washington.”

Perhaps he was serious. Young is now one of Carlos Bustamante’s lawyers. You remember Bustamante? A former Santa Ana Councilman who was brought into the halls of the County of Orange and turned into a darling of the OC GOP? Only to find himself arrested and charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors stemming from sexual harassment charges?

Here’s the deal. Bustamante now admits that he had sex with all sorts of women at the County of Orange but he says it was consensual. He has paid bitterly for his misbehavior – losing his job and his wife. But his lawyers, Young and another lawyer named Gina L. Kershaw, say that he was set up. So was he? Continue reading→

Tom Mauk, the former CEO of Orange County has been identified as the driver of a Cadillac Escalade that hit a stalled Toyota Prius on the 57 Freeway in Diamond Bar this past Sunday, killing two people, according to ABC News.

According to a preliminary report, Thomas Mauk, 69, rear-ended a disabled vehicle on the 57 Freeway near Diamond Bar late Sunday. Anubhai Patel, 67, and his wife, Shardaben Patel, 68, were inside the vehicle at the time of the crash. The Anaheim couple died from their injuries, according to the L.A. Times.

“Orange County officials Friday released a redacted version of a claim filed by an attorney for Deputy CEO Alisa Drakodaidis in which she alleges several acts of retaliation in response to her efforts to root out corruption at the highest levels of county government,” according to the Voice of OC.

As expected, the claim cast suspicions on Supervisor Pat Bates and O.C. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas – but Supervisor Janet Nguyen got fingered too. Here are a few of the claim’s assertions: Continue reading→

From the Desk of Chairman Moorlach – Status of County Executive Officer

Late this afternoon, the Board accepted the resignation of our long-time County Executive Officer, Tom Mauk, effective 5 p.m. on August 3rd. A settlement agreement was reached between Mr. Mauk and all five of the Supervisors.

In addition, the Board requested that the County’s Chief Financial Officer, Bob Franz, serve as the Acting County Executive Officer effective upon Mr. Mauk’s departure. Mr. Franz accepted and will serve in this role until Tuesday, September 11th. On that Tuesday, the Board will select an Interim County Executive Officer, who will serve until a permanent County Executive Officer is selected. The Board intends to hire an outside firm to assist with the nationwide recruitment. Continue reading→

UPDATE: District Attorney Tony Rackauckas Monday quashed the release of a politically explosive letter sent to the Orange County Board of Supervisors by an attorney representing Deputy CEO Alisa Drakodaidis, who abruptly went on a medical leave in the wake of sex crimes charges against former county Public Works executive Carlos Bustamante, according to the Voice of OC.